Mary Astor Movies

The Man with Two Faces is based on The Dark Tower, a stage comedy-mystery by Alexander Woollcott and George S. Kaufman. Edward G. Robinson is at his hammy best as flamboyant, temperamental, but withal endearing theatrical actor-manager Dawson Wells. Mary Astor co-stars as Damon's beloved actress sister Jessica, making a stage comeback after a disastrously unhappy marriage. Alas, Jessica's caddish husband Stanley Vance (Louis Calhern) soon returns, exerting a Svengali-like hold on the poor girl and setting her back on the road to ruin. Unable to buy off Vance, Wells plots a clever revenge, and shortly afterward, Vance is visited by one Monsieur Chautard, an effusive European producer with murder on his mind. The central "gimmick" in Man With Two Faces, which was adroitly concealed in the original Dark Tower, is a bit more obvious on screen due to the dynamic personalities involved. Also, the play's ending, in which Vance's murderer is allowed to escape scot-free by a sympathetic detective, was obviously altered at the very last minute to appease the new Production Code. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this family drama, a happy marriage is threatened by suspicion and jealousy, and illicit affairs. The trouble begins when the wife catches her husband in the arms of a family friend. The wife exacts her revenge claiming that she had an affair with the other woman's husband. This is a lie. They begin fighting. The arguments cease when their daughter tells them that she is going to run off with her boyfriend. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Written by the prolific Ben Hecht, Upper World is a clash-of-class melodrama set in New York City. Railroad tycoon Alexander Stream (Warren William) is neglected by his social-climbing wife Mary Astor. Quite unintentionally, through a chance encounter, he strikes up a reasonably chaste friendship with good-hearted showgirl Lilly Linder (Ginger Rogers). Lilly's ex-boyfriend Lou Colima (J. Carroll Naish) sees an opportunity to blackmail Stream; Lilly tries to block him from doing so, and is murdered for her troubles. Stream shoots Colima in self-defense and manages to cover up his involvement so that the crime scene looks like a murder-suicide, protecting his good name and marriage in the process. But a vitriolic cop (Sidney Toler), whom Stream had earlier gotten demoted over a traffic stop -- and who was on patrol in the vicinity of the crime -- involves himself in the case and gathers enough evidence to point the detectives and the press toward the wary tycoon. Though he must stand trial for Colima's death, Stream is supported in his ordeal by his suddenly attentive and affectionate wife.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This well-wrought drama chronicles the rise and fall of a midwestern family dynasty from the mid 1800s through the Great Depression. Most of the tale centers on a young Dakota farm boy whose grand schemes and ambition lead him on a cattle drive to Texas. From there he hooks up with the owner of a major Chicago slaughterhouse and then falls in love with his new partner's beautiful daughter. They marry and after the youth figures out how to use refrigerated train cars to ship his beef, begin living the lives of the nouveau riche. When his partner dies, he leaves the young man his considerable fortune making him an instant meat-packing magnate. With a good wife, two beautiful children and a terrific home, life for him couldn't be better. Unfortunately, his self-centered wife is discontent. Thinking her husband's profession is preventing her from becoming a true society dame, she begins badgering him to selling the meat business and becoming a more respectable stockbroker. Unfortunately, her attempted machinations fall on deaf ears and the resulting frustration drives her insane. The tycoon's son has his own troubles with his beautiful blue-blooded wife and brokerage business that is destroyed when the market crashes in 1929. His father, who did eventually sell the meat business and invest in his son' brokerage, is also nearly wiped out. In order to support his wife and save face, the son begins embezzling. Unfortunately he gets caught. When he learns that his own wife has betrayed him, the despondent youth is beyond help and tragedy ensues for both the son and his elderly father. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Practically every member of the Warner Bros. stock company except Glenda Farrell shows up in the rowdy, raunchy pre-Code comedy Convention City. Joan Blondell plays Nancy Lorraine, an enterprising lass who is employed by a big-city hotel as a "hostess" for out-of-town conventioneers. She spends a great deal of the film in the company of small-town businessman George Ellerbe (Guy Kibbee), who goes to great lengths to avoid his nagging wife (Ruth Donnelly). Weaving in and out of the proceedings are inveterate practical jokers Goodwin (Frank McHugh) and Hotstetter (Hugh Herbert), who use the convention as an excuse for a three-day binge. The plot rears its ugly head when Nancy finds her affections torn between slick CEO T.R. Kent (Adolphe Menjou) and handsome young salesman Jerry Ford (Dick Powell). The New York Times described it as, "Not a dull foot. One of the few comedies that can truthfully be called positive entertainment." Unfortunately, there are no known surviving prints of Convention City, so it remains one of the era's many "lost films." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The end of prohibition spells the end of business as usual for Chicago gangster Bugs Ahearn (Edward G. Robinson in this delightful spoof of mob melodramas from Warner Bros. Paying off their latest moll, Edith (Shirley Grey, Bugs and chief lieutenant Al Daniels (Russell Hopton) grab their ill-gotten gains and go west, hoping to crash polo playing Santa Barbara society. Bugs acquires a rental mansion and a high class girlfriend, Polly Cass (Helen Vinson), but the estate actually belongs to kind but down-on-her-luck socialite Ruth Wayburn (Mary Astor) -- whom the former mobster retains as his social secretary -- while Polly and her relatives prove to be bigger crooks than he ever was. The Little Giant was reportedly filmed in 18 days on a budget of $197,000. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Red Dust was lensed almost entirely on MGM's back lot; even so, we are utterly convinced that the film takes place in Indochina (never mind that everyone pronounces "Saigon" as Say-gone). Even more importantly, the audience never doubts for one moment that the relationship between "hero" Clark Gable and "heroine" Jean Harlow has gone far beyond the meaningful-glances stage. Gable plays the overseer of a rubber plantation, whiling away the hot, lonely nights with his drunken assistant Tully Marshall. Donald Crisp, another of Gable's cohorts, arrives by boat with stranded prostitute Jean Harlow in tow. Gable wants no part of Harlow at first, telling her that she's history the moment the next boat to Saigon shows up. But Gable and Harlow are, in the parlance of the time, made for each other. After the inevitable affair, Harlow leaves, just as engineer Gene Raymond shows up to participate in the construction of a bridge. Raymond has brought along his seemingly proper wife Mary Astor; it isn't long, however, before Astor is throwing herself at the not altogether unwilling Gable. Raymond is such a good egg that Gable feels ashamed of himself for enjoying Astor's favors. When Harlow returns, Gable goes back to her, which drives the already unstable Astor completely off her trolley. She shoots Gable in a fit of jealous rage. Hearing the shot, Raymond rushes in. Proving that she's "aces," Harlow quickly covers up for Astor, insisting that it was she who shot Gable. None the wiser, Raymond returns to the mainland with Astor, while Gable and Harlow end up in each other's arms for keeps. Fairly "hot" even by pre-code standards, Red Dust has gained legendary status thanks to rumors concerning Jean Harlow's famous bathing scene in a shaved barrel; according to rumor, footage still exists of Harlow totally au naturel (some stories go as far as to claim that the overseas version of Red Dust shows Gable and Harlow "doing it".) For all the sexual badinage, our favorite bit occurs when Harlow, cleaning out a parrot's cage, mutters "Watcha been eatin', cement?" A heavily laundered remake of Red Dust, Mogambo, appeared in 1954, again with Clark Gable in the lead, but this time with Ava Gardner and Grace Kelly in the Harlow and Astor roles, respectively. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A remarkably ambitious endeavor from low-budget World Wide Studios, Those We Love was adapted by F. Hugh Herbert from a play by S.K. Lauren and George Abbott. Mary Astor stars as May, the doggedly devoted wife of struggling writer Fred (Kenneth McKenna). When Fred strays from his wedding vows to dally with temptress Valerie (Lilyan Tashman), May insists upon remaining loyal to her husband, if only for the sake of their son Ricky (Tommy Conlon). As it happens, it is young Ricky who confronts his dad with evidence of his indiscretion, forcing Fred to make a clean breast of things and beg May's forgiveness. Critics were warmly responsive to Those We Love and were especially impressed by pinchpenny World Wide's willingness to spend a bit more than usual for the sake of a good picture. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A pompous executive has a hard time admitting that his hard-working, devoted secretary is really the one pulling the strings in his office and is behind his promotion to company president. As a result, he takes her for granted until she falls in love with another up-and-coming executive. Romantic fireworks ensue before he is able to rectify the situation. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

William A. Wellman's triangle melodrama "The Steel Highway" -- a title referring to the film's railroad setting -- was changed to the more suggestive Other Men's Women shortly before it's April 19, 1931 New York premiere. Grant Withers and Regis Toomey played lifelong friends and co-workers in love with the same woman, Mary Astor). She, unfortunately, is also Toomey's wife and the two friends have a blow-out on the job. The train derails and Toomey is blinded for life. When the river floods, the repentant Withers concocts a scheme to save an important railroad bridge by driving his engine across, thus stabilizing the construction. Believing his blindness makes him a burden to Astor, Toomey sacrifices himself instead. The ploy fails and Toomey is killed. Toomey and Astor, who had replaced James Hall and Marian Nixon, and Grant Withers were all fine under Wellman's crisp direction but the film was stolen outright by supporting players James Cagney and Joan Blondell, the latter as Wither's former girlfriend. With typical pre-production code frankness, Blondell's tough-talking waitress advises a fresh customer that she is "A.P.O." What does this "A.P.O. means?" the customer asks. Blondell: "Ain't puttin' out!" Blondell and Cagney, who had appeared together in the Broadway play Penny Arcade and its subsequent film version, Sinner's Holiday (1930), would reach stardom in their third film together, the gangster classic The Public Enemy (1931). Overly static at times, Other Men's Women was livened considerably by the climactic bridge collapse, a successful use of miniatures. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

Talking pictures made a star out of veteran movie villain Louis Wolheim, perhaps because his voice revealed a heart and soul otherwise obscured by his ugly countenance. In Sin Ship, Wolheim plays a schooner captain who is forced to protect reluctant passenger Mary Astor from his sex-starved crew. Actually Wolheim is saving Mary for himself, but he reverses his rape plans when he genuinely falls in love with her. Since virtually no one in Hollywood would dream of casting the fearsome-looking Wolheim as a romantic lead, the actor decided to direct Sin Ship himself. Sadly, this picture represented the last screen appearance for college professor-turned-actor Wolheim; he died suddenly, just before the film's release. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Though he plays an Italian-American character in Ladies Love Brutes, George Bancroft refreshingly avoids the ethnic stereotype so prevalent in films of the early 1930s. Bancroft is cast as Joe Forziati, a rough-and-tumble building contractor who is suddenly thrust into great wealth. He tries to remain his same down-to-earth self, but soon he's putting on airs in hopes of impressing attractive divorcee Mimi Howell (Mary Astor). Forziati ultimately drops his social pretenses and puts up his dukes when both his son Joey (David Durand) and Mimi's boy Jackie (Freddie Burke Frederick) are kidnapped by Capone-like gangster Mike Mendino (Stanley Fields). Billed third, Fredric March is rather wasted as Mimi's former husband. Ladies Love Brutes was based on Pardon My Glove, a play by Zoe Akins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide